Appeals court backs murder conviction in Long Beach killing

An appellate panel Monday affirmed the first-degree murder conviction of a man who stabbed his live-in girlfriend to death with a machete in their Long Beach apartment in February 2010.

The three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the jury in Alberto Fonseca's trial properly rejected his defense that he killed Mireya Lopez Medina in an "unreflecting rage" after she admitted she had been unfaithful to him.

According to the ruling, the evidence was "more than sufficient to sustain the finding of deliberation and premeditation required for first-degree murder" and "allowed the jury to conclude that (Fonseca), rather than killing in a relatively short burst of spontaneous rage, made multiple decisions to kill again and again during a somewhat lengthy struggle."

Fonseca, 44, was sentenced in September 2011 to 26 years to life in state prison.